The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Angelique Kerber

  • Maguruza sends Kerber packing in last 16

    Maguruza sends Kerber packing in last 16

     

    Angelique Kerber’s recent woes continued as she lost 4-6 6-4 6-4 to Garbine Muguruza to exit Wimbledon. The German has failed to reach the quarterfinals in her last three grand slams and will lose her number 1 ranking.

    Kerber started the match well against the Spaniard, who she beat on the way to the 2015 final in London. In a high-class first set that some felt made a mockery of the match’s placement on court 2, Kerber eventually got the upper hand.

    The 29-year-old was starting to look a little more like the woman that won the Australian and US Opens last year, rather than the one that tamely surrended in the first round in the French Open this year.

    Kerber’s improvement continued at the start of the second set but she missed a few chances to break and Muguruza spied an opportunity she was ruthless enough to take.

    As the third set took the match well past the two hour mark, both players showed signs of nerves, with four breaks of serve in the first six games, swinging the pendulum this way and that.

    Perhaps the key moment of a titanic battle came in the seventh game when Muguruza held on to her serve after an intense battle that involved a number of deuce points.

    Despite saving two match points at 4-5, Kerber couldn’t cling on to her serve moments later. The loss means that the German will lose her status as number one whatever happens in the rest of the tournament. Muguruza will next face Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova after the seventh seed beat Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2 6-4 in their last-16 clash.

    Elsewhere in the women’s draw, there were wins for Venus Williams and French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko. The pair will face each other in the next round.

  • Djokovic placed as second seed at Wimbledon

    Djokovic placed as second seed at Wimbledon

    Three-times champion Novak Djokovic has been placed as second seed for next week’s Wimbledon tennis championships in spite of slipping to fourth in the ATP world rankings.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that seven-times champion Roger Federer has also benefited from the seedings released by the All England Club on Wednesday.

    They have defending champion Andy Murray number one in the men’s singles, with Germany’s Angelique Kerber the women’s top seed.

    Wimbledon differs from the other grand slams, in the men’s singles at least.

    Previous form on grass in the previous two years come into play to re-order the top 32 in the world rankings.

    It is a system agreed with by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

    Spaniard Rafa Nadal, who won a 10th French Open last month, is second in the ATP rankings but will be seeded fourth at Wimbledon after a mediocre record there in recent years.

    In spite of winning the title twice, the 31-year-old has not been past the fourth round since 2011.

    Favorite Federer, fifth on the ATP rankings, is seeded third which means he will avoid one of his biggest rivals for the title until the semi-finals.

    Fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, runner-up at the French, drops to fifth seed, from his world ranking of three.

    Other beneficiaries of the system include Luxembourg’s grasscourt expert Gilles Muller who is seeded 16th compared to an ATP ranking of 26.

    Muller won the recent Den Bosch tournament and reached the semi-final at Queen’s Club last week.

    Queen’s Club champion Feliciano Lopez, ranked 25, is seeded 19th.

    The women’s seeds stick strictly with the current WTA rankings.

    Romania’s Simon Halep, who could take over the top spot this week if she wins the Eastbourne title, is seeded two.

  • Halep to face Ostapenko in French Open final

    Halep to face Ostapenko in French Open final

    Romania’s Simona Halep moved within one win of a first Grand Slam title with victory over Karolina Pliskova on Thursday at the French Open.

    Third seed Halep who will become world number one if she succeeds won 6-4 3-6 6-3 to set up a final against unseeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Czech second seed Pliskova would have become world number one next week had she won the second semi-final.

    On her part, Ostapenko celebrated her 20th birthday with a 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 6-3 win over Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky.

    NAN reports that Mimi Jausovec was the last unseeded player to reach the French Open final in 1983, losing to Chris Evert.

    Saturday’s final will see a new Grand Slam champion crowned, and a new name at the top of the rankings should Halep win and overtake Angelique Kerber.

    “It is nice to be in the final again,” said Halep, who lost to Maria Sharapova in the 2014 French Open final.

    “I hope I can play better and win it. I’m playing a young player – it is a big challenge.”

  • Vesnina ousts Venus to reach semi-finals at Indian Wells

    Vesnina ousts Venus to reach semi-finals at Indian Wells

    Elena Vesnina denied Venus Williams another comeback win to reach the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

    Williams, who this week survived match points against Jelena Jankovic and was down a break in the third against Peng Shuai, fought off three match points in the eighth game.

    She also had six chances to bring it back on serve in the next before the 14th-seeded Russian finally held to finish a gutsy 6-2 4-6 6-3 win.

    The 30-year-old Vesnina, a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year, ripped a forehand putaway off a backhand from 12th seed Williams that clipped the netcord to end the two hour 11 minute battle in the California desert.

    “At the end of the match, I don’t know how I won that game from 0-40,” Vesnina, who had ousted second seed Angelique Kerber to reach the quarters, said in an on-court interview.

    “In the first set she was a little bit slow, missed some easy balls. But then in the second set, Venus was back and I was in trouble.”

    Mladenovic, the 28th seed, continued an impressive run of form beating 13th seed and 2011 winner Wozniacki 3-6 7-6(4) 6-2 to reach her first Premier Mandatory semi-final and guarantee her debut in the Top 20 in next week’s WTA rankings.

    The 23-year-old Frenchwoman improved to 16-5 on the season, a run which includes her first career title in St. Petersburg, and an appearance in the final earlier this month in Acapulco.

    “She’s on fire. So am I,” said Vesnina.

    “One of us can be in the final. We will see tomorrow.”

    Mladenovic wasted a slew of opportunities, squandering nine break points as she fell behind 1-5 in the opening set.

    “I was very frustrated with the beginning of the match. I was hitting a lot of unforced errors,” she said.

    Mladenovic recovered from an early break in the second to move ahead 5-3 before ultimately leveling the match 7-4 in the tiebreak.

    Painting the lines in the third set, Mladenovic broke twice and served out the two hour 33 minute win.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that third seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic will meet eighth-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the other women’s semi-final.